Entertainment

'The Good Wife' heads to Iowa — and deals with the aftermath of Eli's confession

The Good Wife is back — that's good news. The bad? "Iowa" finds the show spread a bit too thin.

With characters and storylines strewn across three states, it seems as the show's dynamic, once-impressive world has grown too big to handle. There's a distance between the characters that makes it hard to engage with them on a personal level.

We pick up right where "KSR" left off, with Alicia reacting to Eli's confession. Oh, and boy does she react. She basically Hulks out, minus the color change.

After Eli doesn't budge when she orders him to get out of her house, Alicia kicks her chair back and pushes the table. When that's not enough to get Eli out, she "calmly" walks toward her china cabinet, takes out some plates, isolates the nice ones from the cheap ones, and proceeds the throw the latter in Eli's general direction until he scrams.

It's an emotionally charged scene that shows Alicia losing it like we've never seen her do before (although it does feel a bit more melodramatic than The Good Wife tends to be). She's found the anger Will displayed in "Hitting the Fan." Eli's confession has shattered the fragile calm and acceptance Alicia had reached when it came to Will's passing.

Image: CBS JoJo Whilden

Another loose meat sandwich

Eli picked a terrible a time to come clean to Alicia — because the next day she, Eli, Peter, Grace, Zach, Ruth, Josh (David Krumholtz), and a bunch of campaign workers crowd into a campaign bus en route to Iowa for the caucus.

We're introduce to the state through shots of corn fields and the like, which look and feel like stock photos: distant, staged, impersonal. Which is basically how the campaign is treating the state, too. No one on the bus has any intention of getting to know the state personally.

Peter is trying to complete what's called the Full Grassley — visiting all 89 Iowa counties before 5 p.m. and trying a local delicacy called a "loose meat sandwich." The move is supposed to show the state's residents that the candidate actually cares about the state, but it's all a façade. He's there for votes, and that's it. Later, this superficial interest in Iowa comes back to bite Peter in the butt.

Naturally, Alicia is rather stoic during the trip as she sits in the back of the bus with her sunglasses on (shorthand for "Alicia is angry"). When the campaign asks for her opinion, Alicia sides with Ruth just because Ruth isn't Eli.

Alicia is back to wondering what could've been if she'd chosen differently, which leads to several unusually intimate moments with Ruth. Ruth repeatedly tells Alicia that there's no point in wondering, because Alicia would've ended up right where she is — or close to it — either way.

Image: CBS JoJo Whilden

While Alicia is focused on the choices she made in the past, it's clear in the present that she doesn't know what she wants. She's been pretty apathetic throughout this campaign process, and, at times, it seems as though she'd rather Peter not win the election.

But then there are moments when it's the opposite — like when Peter has 30 minutes to find to find 30 Iowa voters at a precinct to sign with him so that he can stay in the race. Alicia fights for her husband, and it pays off. He wins the precinct (with some help from Florrick Fanatic Neil Howard Sloan-Jacob).

"Iowa," however, loses sight of Alicia as the Iowa Caucus becomes more important. That's ironic, given what Eli says to Ruth when Peter ends up coming in fourth in the caucus, and is thus out of the presidential campaign. "You missed the most fundamental things about the man. Peter Florrick is not number one, not nationally. She is." Clearly, he's talking about Alicia.

As for Everything Else...

Remember when I said the episode was too spread out? This is what I was talking about.

As the Iowa Caucus is happening, Lucca is back in Chicago at the Lockhart, Agos & Lee offices negotiating Jackie and Howard's prenup. It's a silly and distracting storyline that confirms something we've known for awhile: David Lee is crooked.

It's revealed that he hid $2.2 million in a shell corporation when they were negotiating Alicia's exit package. That means David has committed fraud — or "selective depositing," as he calls it.

Meanwhile, the firm is being investigated by the Illinois Fair Employment Practice Agency because of a complaint Monica submitted before she was hired. FEPA demands an apology and that action be taken to ameliorate the imbedded racism in the firm's structure, and Cary uses this as an opportunity to oust Howard by telling the FEPA rep they will move him to emeritus status to keep him from having any voting power, especially when it comes to associate hiring. Diane is visibly worried by this calculated move from Cary.

Unfortunately, neither of these plot threads are particularly effective or interesting because they feel so distant from Alicia's own story — and they aren't nearly as character-driven as we've come to expect from The Good Wife.

Spreading its drama over two firms and focusing on a national election hasn't worked; like Peter, the show has overreached. But with the election over, hopefully The Good Wife's world will constrict and regain the intimacy it used to have.

Case Notes:

The Florrick's Iowa trip has several screwups. A reporter catches Alicia telling Eli that being on the bus with him in the middle of Iowa is a nightmare, a comment she'll have to walk back later. Also, a camera sees Peter spitting out one of his loose meat sandwiches.

Yes, Zach Florrick returned from the land of Georgetown tonight.

Lucca calls Jason for help with the prenup, and as it turns out, neither he nor Alicia told her about his move to California. This is interesting, because the show goes on to reminds us — for the first time since the premiere — that Lucca and Jason were friends, or at least familiar, before he started working for Alicia. She warns him to be careful with Alicia.

Christopher Sieber's Neil Howard Sloan-Jacob was last seen in Season 2's "Real Deal." Eli found him annoying even then. In this episode, he helps Peter win one precinct by leading Iowa supporters to him through song.

It makes sense that Peter came in last place in the Iowa Caucus. Let's be real: There is no way someone with his scandal-filled political history could've become president.

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